Passage Island (Tasmania)

Passage Island on the bottom right next to Forsyth Island

Passage Island is a private island with leasehold tenure,^[1] made up of granite and dolerite, with an area of 253 ha, in the Bass Strait.

It is part of Tasmania’s Passage Island Group, lying in eastern Bass Strait south of Cape Barren Island in the Furneaux Group. It is a pastoral lease that has been used for grazing cattle.^[2] With Forsyth and Gull Islands it forms part of the Forsyth, Passage and Gull Islands Important Bird Area (IBA), identified as such by BirdLife International because it supports over 1% of the world populations of little penguins and black-faced cormorants.^[3]

Fauna

Recorded breeding seabird, wader and waterbird species include little penguin, short-tailed shearwater, Pacific gull, silver gull, sooty oystercatcher and Cape Barren goose. Apart from cattle, mammals present are the introduced European rabbit, house mouse and a species of rat. Reptiles present include White's skink and the metallic skink.^[2]

References

Coordinates: 40°30′S 148°20′E / 40.500°S 148.333°E / -40.500; 148.333